Rabindranath Tagore's 1916 novel "The Home and the World" explores the conflict between tradition and modernity in colonial India through three main characters: Nikhil represents modern, Western views; Bimala struggles between her traditional role as a wife and modern independence; Sandip advocates for nationalism and social change. The document provides background on Tagore and analyzes how the characters represent different perspectives in the ongoing debate between traditional Indian culture and Westernization.

1. Tradition vs. Modernity
in
‘The Home and The World’
By Rabindranath Tagore
Prepared by Gopi Dervaliya

2. Personal Information
● Name : Gopi Dervaliya
● Roll no. 08
● Sem : 3
● Paper Name : Indian English Literature-Pre-Independence
● Paper no. : 201
● Submitted to : S. B. Gardi Department of English-M.K.B.U
● Email : gopidervaliya02@gmail.com

3. Points to ponder
1. About the author
Rabindranath Tagore
2.About the novel
‘The Home and The
World’
3.Tradition vs. Modernity
In the novel
4.Characters
Nikhil, Sandip &
Bimla
6.Author’sView
On Tradition and
Modernity
5.Conflict & Tensions
Dialogues from the
novel
7. In Contemporary
Time
8. Conclusion

4. About the author
● Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), is internationally known as a
great poet. He was born on May 1, 1861, in Calcutta, Bengal.
● From his earliest days, Rabindranath grew up in a house where all
the surging tides of the Indian Renaissance were flowing around his
daily life.
● He was primarily an educationist rather than a political thinker.
● The cultural richness of his extended family permitted young
Rabindranath to assimilate and learn subconsciously at his own
pace, giving him an open model of education, which he later tried to
recreate in his school at Santiniketan.
● He believed that education should help an individual to attain
complete maturity.
● He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he
tried his Upanishadic ideals of education.

5. ● Rabindranath Tagore, a towering personality of the second millennium world Literature
remains unsurpassed to this day by his unique contribution to this large and flourishing
tradition. His works are classics renowned for their lyrical beauty and moral thoughts.
● He showed that reality can be viewed not only from direct prosaic words but also from
images and symbolic languages.
● Though he is mainly celebrated as a poet, his multifaceted talent was showered upon
different genres of art.
‘Gitanjali’ ‘Gora’ ‘The Post Office’ ‘Clouds & Waves’

6. About the novel
● Rabindranath Tagore's ‘The Home and the World’(Ghare Baire), first published as a
novel in 1916, was a very important publication in its time.
● To read this novel one should bear in one's mind his vision of modern Indian society.
● He is truly a man of whole earth, a product of the best of both traditional Indian and
modern Western cultures.
● The novel focuses on three characters, each of whom speaks in the first-person in
recounting how they interact with one another.
● Nikhil is Bimala's husband; Sandip is Bimala's would-be lover.
● Nikhil epitomizes the unselfish, progressive husband who wishes to free his wife from
the oppressiveness of a traditional Indian marriage. In contrast, Sandip is a man who
thinks only of himself, and who reduces man-woman relationships to brazen sexuality;
he is interested in "blunt things, bluntly put, without any finicking niceness".(Atkinson)

7. ● Bimala is represented as an innocent who, at least
initially, is completely subservient to her husband.
● It is the relationship of the home with the outside world.
● Nikhil is western oriented, modern and he wants his wife
Bimala to be modified by western education. Bimala
follows Hindu rituals and so she does not go outside her
house.
● Her world is the blend of conflict of western ideas and
traditional Indian life. But she imitates her husband
Nikhil and so she tries to grip modern ideas and things
that Nikhil provides her.

8. Tradition vs. Modernity
● There is much talk about the terms traditional, modern and contemporary, which
confuses the issues in Art and Literature.
● Thus in talking about traditional, modern and contemporary literature one has to ask:
What is traditional? What is modern? And what is contemporary in literature?
● Tradition is commonly supposed to be everything ancient, something orthodox and
obsolete. Actually, what is today called tradition was once modern and contemporary.
● Modern and contemporary seem to mean, something fashionable.
● If a man wears a European suit, a necktie, he is considered to be modern, which only
implies that he is not wearing the old tunic and dhoti or kurta-pyjama, but new clothes.
● This kind of talk is superficial, because, underneath the clothes, words or apparel,
remains the human being, who is more or less unchanged or changed very slightly in the
evolutionary process.

9. ● Key characters and their perspectives on tradition and modernity :
1. Nikhil
2. Sandip
3. Bimla
● The story revolves around three sharply contrasting characters: Nikhil, a real patriot,
Bimala, his wife, a toddler in political environment and Nikhil's friend Sandip, an
aggressive yet materialistic charmer.
● Surely, every age could have used the word modern in regard to its literature. But it must be
admitted that there is always something new in the "modern-modern" and contemporary,
which is not in the "ancient-modern."

10. ● Tagore's vision of new life is voiced forth by Nikhil.
● He is not a conservative; he is a liberal man with modern bent of mind. He stands for all
that is good and vital in the Indian tradition.
● His approach to patriotism and Swadeshi movement reflect Tagore's nostalgic memory of
freedom struggle.
● The patriotism and traditionalism portrayed in the character of Nikhil reveal the real
nature of our nationalism and the expectations of most of the people of our country.
● Though it is an imaginative character it paints the true picture of present day Indian
society since the younger generation rocks between Indian traditional values and western
domination.
● "I am willing', he said. 'to serve my country; but my worship I reserve for Right which is
far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it."
(Tagore, The Home and the World, 30)(Tamilselvi #)
Nikhil

11. ● Sandip an energetic, egoistic, wily schemer's aggressive western-type of nationalism
is the one which pasteurizes the emerging trend of present democratic India and
also the new track that was shaped during the nationalistic movement.
● He carefully keeps his followers confused by mixing up westernization, nationalism
and social behavior.
Sandip
Bimla
● Bimala's character in ‘The Home and the World’ by Rabindranath Tagore undergoes a
transformation throughout the novel.
● At the beginning of the story, she is portrayed as a traditional character who adheres
to societal norms, She embodies the traditional role expected of women in her society.
● Bimala's character evolves from being more traditional to adopting a more modern
outlook as she grapples with her changing beliefs and desires.

12. Conflict and Tensions
● Bimala's Inner Conflict :
Bimala (to herself): "I'm torn between duty and desire. My heart craves the
excitement of the modern world, but my traditional role as a wife binds me to
Nikhil."
● Nikhil's Modern Perspective :
Nikhil: "We must strive for progress, but it should be gradual, not destructive.
Our goal is independence, but we cannot achieve it by resorting to violence."
● Traditional Values vs. Swadeshi Movement :
Sandip: "The time for moderation is over! We must tear down the symbols of
oppression and fight for our rights. Swadeshi is the way to freedom, my friends!"

13. Tagore's views on tradition and modernity
● Tagore criticizes the Indian tendency for imitation of the West, known as the large
‘Westernization’ of India as a simple copy that denatures both the model, via the
simplification in the process, and the copy itself.
● Modernity must point to the renewal of Indian categories on the side of innovation and
creativity, selecting in this process with a critical mind the positive contribution of the
Western civilization.
● Thus, Tagore finds in modernism a tool for an aesthetic and moral anti-colonialist struggle
towards independence.
● Finding a harmonious relation to the West, one that would neither be complete rejection
(traditionalism) nor alienation, constitutes an objective to a large part of Tagore’s literature,
which guarantees him originality in his opposition to most of his contemporary fellows and
singularity in the understanding of modernism.

14. Tradition vs. Modernity in contemporary society
● Tradition refers to the the customs, beliefs and cultural practices that are past down
from one generation to the next generation. It has its origin in the past.
● Modernity refers to the contemporary behavior or way of doing things. It is fresh, new
and modern.
● Tradition and Modernity both prevail side-by-side in India. Indian culture is a blend of
traditional values and the modern spirit.
● Modernity is not altogether new in India. It is more than a hundred years old and has
during this period been making steady headway.
● The Hindu tradition itself is not homogeneous, as many of its spokesmen and critics
often seem to assume. It is true that some of the Hindu traditions are inherently
incompatible with the modern spirit. In ancient India , particularly during the period of
Rig Vedic Society, the Indian society was free from most of the inhibitions of later
Hinduism.

15. ● In elaborating the distinction and inter- action between the "great tradition" of urban centers
and the "little tradition" of village communities, anthropologists have called our attention to
the diversity and the existence of alternatives in what has been supposed to be a uniform body
of rules and values. (Gusfield #)
● We must avoid accepting the written and intellectualized versions of a culture as only the
literate form of a common set of beliefs and behavior patterns.
● The distinction between "popular" religion and the religion of the literati elite has long been
a recognition of this difficulty in characterizing the "religion" of a society.
● M. N. Srinivas has shown that, while higher social levels appear to be "western- izing" their
lifestyles, when lower and middle levels seek mobility they do so by becoming more devotedly
Hinduistic, following more Brahminical styles, and otherwise Sanskritizing their behavior.
● Tradition and modernity are not contradictory or competing concepts. Rather they represent
different faces of meaning and are in fact symbiotically related to each other. As such
tradition (s) is the ground from which all manner of modernity aris.

16. Conclusion
● In conclusion, 'The Home and the World' by Rabindranath Tagore masterfully
explores the timeless conflict between traditional values and modern ideals. Through
the characters of Bimala, Nikhil, and Sandip, Tagore vividly portrays the inner
turmoil and external clashes that arise when individuals and societies grapple with
the transition from tradition to modernity. The dialogues, scenes, and character
interactions in the novel provide a rich tapestry of the complex, multifaceted nature of
this conflict.

17. References
Anand, Mulk Raj. “TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN LITERATURE.” Journal of South Asian Literature, vol.
10, no. 1, 1974, pp. 45-50. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40871709. Accessed 15 October 2023.
Chaudhuri, Rosinka. “Tagore's Home and the World.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 43, no. 50, 2008,
pp. 23-25. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40278286. Accessed 15 October 2023.
Gusfield, Joseph R. “Tradition and Modernity: Misplaced Polarities in the Study of Social Change.” American
Journal of Sociology, vol. 72, no. 4 January, 1967, pp. 351-362. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2775860. Accessed 15 October 2023.
Halakeri, Barakatali. “Educational ideals and contributions of Rabindranath Tagore.” International Journal of
Advanced Research And Development, vol. 2, no. 6, 2017, pp. 779-781. Archives,
https://www.multidisciplinaryjournal.net/archives/2017/vol2/issue6/2-6-272. Accessed 15 October 2023.

18. Mondal, Gourish Chandra. “Reflective Analysis of Perceptions on Education of Rabindranath Tagore.” International
Journal of Management and Humanities, vol. 3, no. 5, 2018, pp. 18-20. (IJMH), https://www.ijmh.org/wp-
content/uploads/papers/v3i5/E0198073518.pdf. Accessed 15 October 2023.
Tagore, Rabindranath. The home and the world. Translated by Surendranath Tagore, Penguin Publishing Group, 2005.
amazon.in, https://www.amazon.in/Home-World-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449868. Accessed 16 October 2023.
Tamilselvi, Dr. A. “Rabindranath Tagore's Novel The Home And The World An Allegory.” INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED
RESEARCH, vol. 1, no. 3, 2011, pp. 137-138. Worldwidejournals.com, https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-
journal-of-applied-research-(IJAR)/article/rabindranath-tagore-s-novel-the-home-and-the-world-an-
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